The 35th Sportsworld 5 mile race is over and the work around it is just about done. So to draw a line under the race I thought I would write a few things about this years race and its planning.
To be perfectly honest September is horrible. Summer is over, its getting dark and you have to start from scratch on the race again. You have to try and convince people to go onto the committee, apply for a new race date and start again with no sponsors, no entries and a list of improvements needed from the year before.
The only good things are time flies and we have had a number of really good committee members on race committees over the years. So at each monthly race meeting there is progress on jobs and before you know it the race is just the following week again.
Over the last few years no race has been the same and we have had to deal with changes in course, changes in venue, change in website and online payment system so each year has brought a different challenge. Without doubt this years challenge was the junior races.
For anyone who dreams of teachers holidays, working hours, all the presents they get from their students the reality of having to deal with the kids, parents and rules all bring things back to reality. If you set down and thought of all the things that could of gone wrong organising a junior race it would be a long and scary list. However around 2 years ago we decided we would do it and this year before we could write that long and scary list we announced we were doing it.
I could talk about the history of the 35years of the race, the money raised for charity or the course records but I think the junior race sums up the race history. Taking a chance on organising something that is difficult, fraught with possible problems, on paper not profitable, requires a huge amount of volunteering and good will and the reason for doing it is just for people to enjoy and get something out of running. I think anyone who saw the junior races would agree there was plenty of enjoyment. But if I hear the word ‘cute’ one more time…
There is a huge amount of people to thank for the 2019 race and there is a lot of unknown support and work in the background of the race that most people don’t know about but just to name a few – Sandra Armstrong for all her work on the junior race, Anthony Gillan for controlling everything as course director, Eoin O Brien for all the social media work so much that Facebook has actually suspended his account, Liam Lenehan for pulling money and resources out of all the local businesses, Bronwyn for creating a professional graphic design image for the race, Dr Louise Jackman for dealing with the race medical emergencies, Jim Browne, Grainne Lynch, Delourdes Seymore, Adrain Lanigan and Ann Marie Clynne for doing the many unseen race jobs and giving advice and opinions at the monthly race meetings.
One of the good things about the Sportsworld 5 mile race is it makes improvements each year. To make those improvements we need feedback so we know the things that didn’t work well or could be improved. But if we dont know about them we cant work on them. So if you have any feedback good or bad please send an email to the club.
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